It has long been appreciated that a natural posture for defecation is that of squatting. When a person squats, his or her anal canal is aligned with his or her rectum to permit easy and complete evacuation of feces. This minimizes the straining, stress and time required to defecate. Since the dawn of time, humans have defecated in the squatting position, and to this day squatting is the preferred position in many Asian countries.
In other countries, most notably those in Europe and the Americas, the squat toilet has been replaced by a conventional sitting toilet. When a person sits on a toilet while defecating, his or her pelvic muscles contort the anal canal causing the anorectal angle to remain at approximately 90 degrees, necessitating the evacuation of feces through a right angle rather than an approximately straight tube. Also, by using a seated position for defecation, much of the weight of the person is borne by his or her buttocks and blood is pooled therein by the ring of the toilet seat. As a result, a person defecating in a sitting posture must strain to evacuate, which can lead to a host of problems, including physical discomfort, hemorrhoids, constipation, pelvic organ prolapse, anal fissures, slow transit time, colon cancer, and, in certain individuals, stroke or heart attack triggered by temporarily increasing blood pressure. Because of the slowing down of the heart rate (bradycardia) during straining, defecting in a sitting position can even trigger non fatal and fatal cardiac arrhythmias. Squatting may reduce these potential problems. Squatting also assists in sealing the ileocecal valve between the colon and the small intestine, which prevents fecal matter from contaminating the small intestine.
The advantages of squatting over sitting have long been recognized. The sitting toilet, however, is ingrained in Western societies, not only through habit and custom, but also through building codes and the fact these societies have invested substantial sums of money in the existing sitting toilet infrastructure.
Many people in Western society, particularly Americans, also lack the muscular strength and, because of a shortened Achilles tendon, flexibility to assume a squatting position without significant effort and strain. This may cause them to reject squatting because they find it awkward and uncomfortable. When they do squat, because they are teetering and straining, their pelvic muscles are not fully relaxed, and this may result in puborectalis and external anal sphincter tension and sub-optimal alignment of the rectal canal, thereby not allowing them to experience the full benefits of squatting.
Inventors have for years tried to improve the defecation posture of Westerners through a variety of toilets and toilet accessories that either seek to permit squatting using a Western type toilet or to mitigate the adverse effects of the sitting posture. These past efforts have failed to effect any appreciable change in the defecation habits of Westerners. The overwhelming majority of Americans, for example, continue to sit on toilets as they have for generations. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an apparatus for assisting a person in assuming a beneficial squatting position without significant effort and strain.